Posts Tagged ‘impressions’

Continuing a short series in which I get to grips with the newly-released Elite: Dangerous and document my thoughts about the game as I do.

I’d made this pledge to myself – that I’d learn this game without help. It has not been at all easy. Elite Dangerous only wants to impart a bare minimum of information to me, and while a large part of me digs working it out for myself, often I’m hitting brick walls. For instance:Read the rest of this entry »

Insurgency is a lot of fun. Following Rich’s great exploratory feature on the highly tactical game last year, I took a look at it for the first time this week and tried to find out more about it, where it’s going and how a year’s further development has shaped it.

At it’s core, Insurgency is a tactical shooter, one that sits between the hardcore realistic works of Arma; the competitive, smart strategies borne of Counter-Strike; and the large-scale war efforts of Red Orchestra. It kind of feels a bit like Battlefield in parts, too.

Elite: Dangerous is out. Somehow that happened after all these years. Remarkable, really. As previously discussed, a full review/Wot I Think of the game we’re not supposed to call Elite 4 will arrive next year. It won’t be from me, as despite my fondest wishes otherwise I can’t spend the Christmas break in a Cobra, but what I can do is whip out my big joystick and give you some initial impressions over the next few days. You can call it a review diary if you like, but I’m more sharing what I think as I go along, not intending that it reach some final judgement. If you’d care to join me, SUIT UP.

RPG Lords Of Xulima snuck out last month, forgetting to tell anyone it existed, and indeed that it seems rather good. I’ve played the first few hours of the 60+ hour game, and have some early impressions to share with you. For instance, here’s my impression of a games critic:

Dungeon Defenders II is a tower defence/action-RPG hybrid, with a very heavy focus on co-op multiplayer, in which your fantasy archetype lays traps and wades into the fray themselves in the hope of defeating waves of marching monsters. Its ‘pre-alpha’ has been out on Steam Early Access for a short while now, and is proving rather popular. I gave it a very quick look to try and find out why.Read the rest of this entry »

Ubisoft’s The Crew is now out, via Steam in the US and UPlay and something called “shops” in other parts of the world. Ubisoft, after the PR disaster of trying to impose post-release embargoes on Assassin’s Creed: Unity reviews, have taken the rather bold step of informing customers not to trust early reviews. This is because they’ve withheld review code from journalists until just before launch, and then insisted that no fair opinion of it can be gained until it’s been played for dozens of hours, the end-game reached, on populated servers. Indeed, no fair review could be written in a day – especially one where, surprise, there are server issues – but impressions can certainly be had of those opening few hours. I’ve written mine below.

DeadCore snuck up from nowhere. A complete FPS platformer, out on Steam tomorrow, whose terrible name belies a swishy, entertaining and rather tricky game. There’s is no shortage of FPS platform jumping of late, so does DeadCore do enough to stand out?

Mordheim: City of the Damned has been on my radar since I first saw it at Gamescom earlier this year. An adaptation of one of Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy spin-offs, it’s a tactical game of skirmishing warbands in a chaos-stricken city. I’ve been poking around the city since Early Access began a few days ago and while the foundations are impressive, it’s not quite ready for an influx of new inhabitants.

As of last month, developers Facepunch (headed by Garry Newman of Garry’s Mod fame) declared that what was previously known as ‘Experimental Mode’ is now the definitive version of Rust. It now launches by default on Steam, with an option to play on the old ‘Legacy’ servers instead if you’re not ready for change. Unfortunately, I don’t think the game’s quite ready itself.

Surprise! Badger-lovers Might & Delight, they of the lovely/heartbreaking Shelter, just put out a new game. And, er, it’s a shmup. But it’s OK: The Blue Flamingo is a shmup with a lounge music soundtrack and hand-crafted models. 32 feet worth of handcrafted model, specifically, which was then photographed and imported into the game. Even the explosion effects come from filming fireworks.

MASSIVE CHALICE (their capitals, not mine) is a Kickstarted strategy-roleplaying game from Psychnoauts, Costume Quest and Broken Age dev Double Fine. (Yes, they do seem to be chucking out a game every other week right now, and not without casualties.) Set in a fantasy kingdom besieged by demonic forces, you must raise and then control a defensive army, ideally sourced from the offspring of your best fighters. I’ve spent some time with the ‘premium backer beta.’Read the rest of this entry »

“This is a a remake of DayZ but made in a superior engine in which zombies can’t just walk through walls.” I love that. Puritanism in zombie games. If there was a Mojo magazine for games, “Doom is still the best engine in the world” would be its “the Beatles are still the best band in the world.”

I digress. DoomZ really is DayZ in Doom, including the whole rickety, unfinished thing, at least for now. And, to be honest, there is some truth to its obstinate declaration about superiority – but it’s not because of anything to do with walking through walls, and more because of how its appearance affects -and enhances – my survival game mindset.Read the rest of this entry »